How Social Networking & Downloadable Content is Changing Video Games

Patches and mods are nothing new to the PC crowd. For almost as long as there's been software there've been updated releases, courtesy patches, and fan-made mods. But in our increasingly connected, digital social world the process is taking a unique path on console system and changing the way we find out if a video game is worth playing.

When Burnout Paradise was first released on Xbox 360 I was excited about its Online Freeburn mode where several players connect in Paradise City and drive around, taking each other out and accomplishing various goals. It was fun for a while but eventually grew boring. That's a large chunk of the Burnout Paradise experience that dragged down my overall opinion of the game. I stopped playing months ago and the disc has been gathering dust ever since.

It's an experience that most gamers have had hundreds of times over the years. Games grow tiresome and you've run out of things to do. Suddenly though, I'm excited about Burnout Paradise again with the revelation of a series of Title Updates planned for 2008. Not only do they feature the usual complement of bug fixes and performance improvements, they're tweaking some of the core gameplay elements, adding new races and even new modes to that tired old Online Freeburn. The developers at Criterion Games will also be releasing a series of downloadable content this year that will bring new islands to explore and new game modes to try out.

This same phenomenon happened in 2007 with Crackdown, also on the Xbox 360. Months after the game's release a free downloadable pack and a few Title Updates changed several aspects of the game. Hidden orbs were easier to find, targeting and camera control were improved, more character skins were added, and an option to reset the game's enemy gangs was included. A for-pay pack was also released that included several new vehicles and new weaponry, vehicles races, and more side missions. After finishing my time with the game, here I am months later back in Pacific City with renewed excitement and new things to do.

An even more dramatic example is Lair for the PlayStation 3. The developers at Factor 5 chose to design the gameplay around the controller's motion sensing hardware which many players (and critics) found to be overly difficult to use. A free update is available online which adds traditional analog control as well as a targeting reticule to improve aiming.

What's really exciting about these kinds of updates is that they're more than just performance tweaks. Although the folks at Factor 5 may not have wanted a traditional control scheme it was the players' demand that finally brought it about. Many of the changes in both Burnout Paradise and Crackdown are based on feedback that the developers receive via interaction with players on their websites and anonymous data that the game transmits about how people play their games. With the advent of these gameplay-altering updates and player-inspired improvements I've been wondering, should reviews and ratings of these games be revised and do there need to be multiple reviews for those people who can't afford downloadable content packs or don't have access to the updates?

It seems that as younger generations grow into the online social worlds of Facebook and Twitter -- where opinions and conversations are posted and updated endlessly -- that traditional reviews may have to evolve as well. Obviously, printed magazines (especially those revolving around entertainment) are seeing dwindling subscription numbers thanks to the internet's always-connected and constantly updated nature. Soon, reviews of video games may evolve from one-time, score-based critiques into frequently revisited and updated journals that chronicle a game's evolution.

Or perhaps definitive reviews by a single writer will be replaced entirely by online communities who rate and comment on games as they play them. Hundreds of websites allow users to rate and review the products they buy while some sites like Blippr.com and Metacritic.com exist for that purpose alone. In an age where seemingly everyone is connected, the collective opinion -- for better or worse -- may finally mean more than one critic's definitive rating.